Stockholm's rabbits burned to keep Sweden heated

The bodies of thousands of wild rabbits culled each year from Stockholm's parks are being used to fuel a heating plant in central Sweden.

Six thousand bunnies were killed last yearPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

By Allan Hall

3:09PM BST 13 Oct 2009

Animal rights activists have claimed that domestic pets are also being rounded up and incinerated.

"Those who support the culling of rabbits think it's good to use the bodies for a good cause. But it feels like the power company is trying to turn the animals into an industry rather than look at the main problem," said Anna Johannesson of the Society for the Protection of Wild Rabbits.

The rabbits going up in smoke are the inhabitants of Stockholm's parks who are culled to protect the shrubs and trees on which they gorge. But many of them are tame domestic pets turned loose by owners who no longer want them.

Six thousand bunnies were killed last year. The corpses were frozen and then sent to a special heating plant at Karlskoga, in central Sweden, where the cadavers were burnt in order to help heat the homes of residents of Värmland.

But animal rights activists have called for better treatment for the wild rabbits.

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Mrs. Johannesson told local newspaper Vart Kungsholmen; "We want to see them start looking at other solutions for the rabbits. Helsinki in Finland sprays the plants to make them unappetizing and they have also set up a system of shelters for animals to be donated to. They have come much further along than us."